Baltimore Afro American Newspaper February 7 2015

February 7, 2015 - February 7, 2015, The Afro-American

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Volume 123 No. 27

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FEBRUARY 7, 2015 - FEBRUARY 13, 2015

Mayor Rawlings-Blake’s Proposed Reforms vs. Police Union Pushback AFRO Series–Part Four

By Roberto Alejandro Special to the AFRO

By Zenitha Prince Senior AFRO Correspondent

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake called for changes to the law enforcement officers bill of rights (LEOBR) that would grant police commissioners greater power to discipline officers guilty of misconduct, and create a new felony that would apply to officers accused of any misdemeanor carrying a maximum possible sentence of over one year in prison. While the Baltimore police

Is Digital Redlining Causing Internet Caste System?

As the digital revolution continues to evolve, the gap between the “haves” and “have nots” continues to persist in what former Secretary of State Colin Powell coined a “digital apartheid.”

union, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3 (FOP 3), has come out against the proposed changes, community leaders have expressed cautious support for the mayor’s initiatives.

Announcing, Feb. 2, what she called “a balanced and achievable package of legislation” to be presented to the Maryland General Assembly for consideration, Rawlings-Blake outlined reforms to the LEOBR that she said would assuage concerns in the community that police officers are

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The Internet and broadband connectivity has become the backbone of society. Commerce, political engagement, health care, communication—such as making free international calls via Internet, education, job applications, company Continued on A8

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Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announces her proposed reforms of the LEOBR at a press conference on Feb. 2 at City Hall.

allowed to play by a different set of rules than everybody else when it comes to misconduct.

“If a police officer commits the same assault (that a civilian could be accused of) in uniform, they can receive the same punishment,” said the mayor.

“And the police commissioner would be empowered to act quicker in holding that police officer accountable.”

In thus saying, the mayor was referring to the charge of second degree assault, a misdemeanor that is among the most common charges received by police officers accused of violent misconduct against a citizen, but which does not suspend the officer’s contractual right to a trial board, an internal police disciplinary process.

By creating a new felony of ‘misconduct in office’ that would include any misdemeanor with a maximum possible sentence of over one year in prison (second degree assault carries a maximum possible 10 years) committed while on duty, a police commissioner would be empowered to suspend the accused officer without pay once charges are filed, and if the officer is found guilty in a court of law, discipline that officer outside of the trial board process.

Under the current protections offered by the LEOBR, officers accused of a misdemeanor such as second degree assault can only be suspended with pay.

Gene Ryan, president of the FOP 3, issued a statement, Feb. 3, denouncing

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Batts: Police Leaders Must Shape Police-Community Relations Conversation

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By Roberto Alejandro Special to the AFRO

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Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts says law enforcement leaders have the bully pulpit and must use it to start and shape conversations about the relationship between police departments and the communities they serve. Batts argues that the problem of policecommunity relations goes beyond issues of Black and White, and that police organizations have to be willing to acknowledge when they have been part of broader structural problems.

Since college, Batts has spent 33

years in law enforcement, with most of that time in Long Beach, Calif.

The conversation on the west coast, Batts says, is less about Black and White racism – as it is here in Baltimore – and more about diversity. That is a conversation that must take place in Baltimore as well.

“Part of what I’ve tried to do in my first two years here is kind of spark that conversation, because I think it plays out other ways,” said

Batts. “It plays out in communities, it plays out in education, it plays out in enforcement of rules throughout the community as a whole.

“The good thing for us . . . is that the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) is 52 percent minority in a city that’s 60 percent minority, so we’re one of the most diverse based on population and the reflection of our community. We come close but we still have those trust issues

between the community and the police organization.”

The conversation, then, is not about whether police officers themselves are racist, but the role law enforcement plays in the community at large and within the broader social structure. “I have to get police departments to the point where we have to say that we’ve been part of the problem. And what I mean by that is, we have to take an honest look in a mirror and say, how have we helped, how have we exacerbated problems that were out there, and how do we then adapt and change Continued on A4

‘Legalizing Marijuana Did Not Make Sky Fall’ Say Lawmakers with Experience

115 Years of Fraternity and Service Provided by Elks

By Roberto Alejandro Special to the AFRO

By Roberto Alejandro Special to the AFRO

Maryland lawmakers heard testimony on the taxation and regulation of marijuana from state and city officials representing Colorado and Washington, two states that have legalized marijuana. Legalization, the officials said, has not resulted in increased risks to public safety, but there remain challenges, particularly where financing is concerned, in establishing an effective legal market for the drug.

The testimony was

For over 115 years, the Improved Benevolent Protective Order of Elks of the World has provided a space for fraternity and community service for men in Baltimore.

Once numbering in the thousands, the Elks today are smaller in number but their commitment to serving their Continued on A5

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Photo by Roberto Alejandro

Del. Curt Anderson speaks at a press conference on marijuana taxation and regulation. Rep. Jonathan Singer of Colorado (far right) testified before the General Assembly about his state’s experience with marijuana legalization, along with Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes (not pictured).

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The Afro-American, February 7, 2015 - February 13, 2015

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Marissa Alexander will serve two years of house arrest and wear an ankle monitor.

Florida: Marissa Alexander Finally Released from Prison

A Florida woman who faced as many as 60 years in jail for firing a warning shot at her abusive husband was released from prison Jan. 27 after accepting a plea deal.

Marissa Alexander, 34, agreed to a deal which would limit her time in prison to the three years she had already served as her case made its way through the court system, Reuters reported. Under the deal, Alexander will serve two years of house arrest and wear an ankle monitor.

Alexander pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated assault for firing a shot in the direction of her estranged husband, Rico Gray, during a 2010 argument, according to Jacksonville, Fla. television station WJXT. Alexander was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2012, but that conviction was later overturned, Reuters reported. In the retrial, District Attorney Angela Corey—who also prosecuted George Zimmerman for the killing of Trayvon Martin—threatened to jail Alexander for up to 60 years, leading Alexander to accept the plea deal in November.

“I look forward to the full-time challenge of getting my two teenagers through high school and into college, as well we preparing my 4-year-old daughter for nursery school,” Alexander said in a prepared statement after leaving the courthouse.

“My goal is to continue my education beyond my master’s degree and to continue my professional career,” she added.

“Also, I will continue to learn lessons from the events of the past, but I will not live in the past. At the age of 34, life is too short and there’s too much I have to accomplish in the years ahead. It’s my hope and prayer that everyone associated with this case will be able to move on with their lives.”

Home Depot Employee Kills Supervisor, Self in Manhattan Store

A Home Depot employee fatally shot his supervisor at the hardware chain’s Manhattan store Jan. 25 before taking his own life.

Calvin Esdaile Jr. allegedly shot supervisor Moctar

Sy several times in the chest and stomach before shooting himself in the head, according to the New York Daily News. The shooting occurred at the Home Depot store in Manhattan’s Flatiron District.

“Just as I turned the corner I hear boom, boom, boom and boom,” Howard Mash, 65, told the Daily News. “At first I thought somebody dropped a box of light bulbs, but the noise was Facebook photo. so loud.”

Moctar Sy was identified by a Officials found Esdaile’s co-worker as the victim. body near a .38 caliber handgun. Paramedics rushed Sy to Bellevue Hospital, where he was declared dead a short time later. Esdaile worked with Sy in the lighting department and was recently fired by him, police said.

Esdaile’s father expressed regret over his son’s actions.

“If it’s him, I’m sorry about this thing, and I’m sorry someone has to die by his hand,” Calvin Esdaile Sr. told NewsOne. Esdaile moved to Brooklyn from Jamaica in 2006, the newspaper reported, and leaves behind a six-year-old son.

“We’re deeply saddened by this tragedy,” Home Depot representatives said in a statement. “We are fully cooperating with the authorities on their investigation of what appears to have been an isolated incident.”

Clergy Oppose Fla. Police Use of Black Mug Shots for Target Practice

Twitter photo.

The Miami Beach Police Department recently used mug shots of African-American men for target practice.

Clergy members across the country are adding their voice to national outrage over the North Miami Beach Police Department’s use of mugshots of African American men for target practice.

Predominantly White clergy from various denominations took to social media with the hashtag #UseMeInstead, an effort to urge the North Miami Beach Police Department to use their photos instead, and to respond to the systematic problem of racism.

The social media movement was created on the Facebook page of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America after several clergy members used the platform to express their disapproval with the police department’s use of Black images for target practice.

The news was made public by National Guard Sgt. Valerie Deant, whose brother’s picture was among those fired upon by officers during training.

North Miami Beach Police Department Chief J. Scott Dennis publicly denied allegations of racial profiling, according to Miami PBS station WLRN, and said the department had previously used mugshots of White and Hispanic individuals. Dennis apologized to residents in Washington Park, Fla. and said the department has ended the use of mugshots in target practice.

One of the pastors who discussed the issue on the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Facebook page, Rev. Joy M. Gonnerman, told the Washington Post that the effort to send their pictures to the police department was “motivated by our service to Christ and his call to love our neighbors.”

“It’s such a desensitization thing, that if you start aiming at young Black men, and told to put a bullet in them, you become desensitized,” Gonnerman said to the Post. “Maybe, to change the picture, it’s you know what, dare ya, shoot a clergy person.”

Despite the department ending the practice, participants in the #UseMeInstead campaign plan on sending their 8-by-10 photos to the North Miami Beach Police Department.

February 7, 2015 - February 13, 2015, The Afro-American

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HEALTH

Congenital Heart Defects Top the List

W

By Shantella Y. Sherman Special to the AFRO

hile congenital heart defects are common, particularly among African Americans, awareness of its causes, treatments, and efforts of prevention, remain relatively low. Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week, February 7 – 14, offers an opportunity to raise awareness of both the nation’s numberone birth defect – affecting approximately one in every 125 babies every year – as well as bring attention to ongoing medical and scientific breakthroughs designed to decrease the numbers impacted by various heart defects.

Congenital heart defects – those present at birth – are not only preventable, but are further complicated by a lack of routine testing among pregnant women and low rates of newborn screenings. Undetected, conditions that include damage to the heart’s chambers, valves, or blood vessels become life threatening. According to the American Heart Association’s Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics 2012 Update, heart defects continue to be the greatest source of infant deaths related to birth defects.

Racial disparities continue to impact survival rates with infant mortality from congenital heart disease highest among African Americans. And while some heart defects

carry a genetic link, others are largely influenced by environmental factors such as maternal smoking during pregnancy, maternal obesity, exposure to certain air pollutants, solvents and pesticides, low levels of maternal folic acid ingestion during pregnancy, and poorly controlled pre-pregnancy and gestational maternal diabetes.

In 2014, the American Heart Association (AHA) released a scientific statement on the diagnosis and treatment of fetal cardiac disease. Written by a team of cardiac and obstetrical experts with lead author, Mary T. Donofrio, MD, Director of the Fetal Heart Program and Medical Director of the Critical Care Delivery Program for the Fetal Medicine Institute at Children’s National Health System, the statement outlined guidelines for diagnosing and treating fetal cardiovascular problems.

“The goal of the fetal cardiologist has now become to understand the fetus as a patient, knowing that the fetal circulation is different from the postnatal circulation that CHD may progress in utero, and that cardiac function and stability of the cardiovascular system play important roles in fetal wellness,” Donofrio wrote.

Fetal wellness assessments that technologically have been proven reasonable and safe, include kick counts and non-stress testing beginning in the third trimester.

While some congenital heart defects can be found before birth; others are determined after birth with babies

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showing bluish tinted nails or lips or having trouble breathing. Certain hospitals screen all babies soon after birth using pulse oximetry screening – which tests the amount of oxygen in the blood and pulse rate. However, pulse oximetry screening is not required in most states. Other heart defects might have no signs at birth and are not found until later in life, during childhood or even adulthood.

Sometimes called a hole in the heart, this defect — the most common congenital heart defect — occurs when the muscular wall (septum) separating the bottom chambers of the heart (right and left ventricles) doesn’t fully form.

The hole allows oxygenrich blood to leak from the left ventricle into the right ventricle, instead of moving into the aorta and on to the body. In the right ventricle, the oxygen-rich blood mixes with blood that does not have enough oxygen in it.

As medical care and treatments have advanced, infants with heart defects are living longer and healthier into adulthood.

Roughly 1.3 million adults in the United States are living with a congenital heart defect.

Diagnosis and Treatment of Congenital Heart Defects In Children

Severe heart disease generally becomes evident during the first few months after birth. Some babies are blue or have very low blood pressure shortly after birth. Other defects cause breathing difficulties, feeding problems, or poor weight gain.

Minor defects are most often diagnosed on a routine medical check-up. Minor defects rarely cause symptoms.

While most heart murmurs in children are normal, some may be due to defects.

If the heart problem is significant, the child’s pediatrician will likely refer the child to a pediatric cardiologist. Pediatric cardiologists are trained to diagnose and treat heart problems in infants, children, and young adults. They have the training and equipment to find out what tests and treatments the child will need, and how often the child will need heart checkups in the future.

In Adults

For pregnant women, the American Heart Association recommends maintaining a healthy pregnancy weight, monitoring and measuring diabetes, and taking prescribed prenatal vitamins and minerals, especially folic acid. For adults who believe they may have a heart defect, it is important to visit a cardiologists who can evaluate their medical history and perform a physical exam. Physicians may also order an electrocardiogram (called an EKG or ECG), chest X-ray, or an echocardiogram (ultrasound movie of the heart). A ventricular septal defect can lead to heart failure, high blood pressure in the lungs (pulmonary hypertension), infection of the heart (endocarditis), irregular heartbeats (arrhythmias), and delayed growth.

Small holes may heal on their own or cause no symptoms.

Larger holes may require surgery to stitch the hole closed or to cover the hole with a patch.

For more information about congenital heart defects, visit the American Heart Association website at www.heart. org

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The Afro-American, Afro-American, February February 7, 7, 2015 2015 -- February February13, 7, 2015 2015

While Hogan Lauds Balance, Advocates Say New Budget Cuts Too Much, Too Fast

By Roberto Alejandro Special to the AFRO

Gov. Larry Hogan (R) has released a budget he says increases education spending in the state while simultaneously addressing Maryland’s projected $750 million shortfall for fiscal year (FY) 2016 without raising fees or taxes. The governor’s proposed budget has not been particularly well received in Baltimore City, however, with many criticizing both the scope of the cuts in the budget, as well as the governor’s choice to resolve the state’s structural budget deficit over the course of a single year rather than several.

According to information released by the governor’s office about the proposed budget, state spending on education will total $6.1 billion, including a $45.3 million increase in aid to public schools. The budget purports to expend exactly the $16.4 billion in revenue the state projects to take in for 2016, as well as resolving Maryland’s existing $750 million structural budget deficit.

“I am extremely proud to introduce a structurally balanced budget that puts our state on sound financial footing,” said Hogan in a press release. “But this is just a start. . . . My administration will continue to work to put Maryland’s economy back on track, attract new businesses, and create jobs for the long-term stability of our budget.”

Critics of the budget say the claimed

increase in education funding is disingenuous, and that the budget imposes rather draconian cuts to achieve balance in a single year, when those cuts could have been made smaller and spread out over several years to achieve the same end.

According to Bebe Verdery, director of the Education Reform Project at the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, the $45.3 million increase across the state is solely a function of teacher pension fund payments,

“The economy is getting better, it’s likely that revenues could be up next year, so why cut so severely right now?”

– Bebe Verdery

and increases in the number of enrolled public school students – increases legally required by contract (teacher pension fund payments), or by state law (the state’s education funding formula factors-in enrollments and cannot be changed without action by the General Assembly).

“Per pupil, the amount that each child gets from the state is reduced,” said Verdery.

Hogan’s budget actually represents a $35 million reduction in education aid for Baltimore City, savings achieved, in part, by not funding the inflation factor of the state’s education formula, which has been held flat for some time but was set to be funded at a rate of 1.4 percent in 2016, according to Verdery.

Hogan does not have the power to unilaterally

Mayor

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the mayor’s proposals.

“To suggest that we, as a profession, should become a second class of citizenry, with a separate set of laws by which we are governed, is unconscionable,” read the statement, in part. “The current [LEOBR] does not exist to allow ‘bad’ cops to escape punishment. . . . It exists to guarantee that, as a profession, we are not alienated from our rights as citizens.”

The statement concluded by saying that the FOP 3 would “combat any attempt to disrupt the LEOBR.” Asked to respond to the FOP’s position, Kevin Harris, the mayor’s chief of public affairs, said via email that these legislative proposals are “a continuation of reforms already in place” that have resulted in fewer misconduct lawsuits against the city, and that driving the number down further requires more than can be achieved through internal reforms of the Baltimore Police Department alone.

“Ultimately the police commissioner needs more power and

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defund the inflation factor, however, and the General Assembly could restore approximately $75 million across the state in education funding if it refuses to go along with this part of the budget.

Hogan also sought to cut the Geographic Cost of Education Index by half, a special part of the education funding formula received by about half the counties in the state, but which is not required by law. That cut to the index, which does not require any action by the

General Assembly to take effect, represents a loss of $11.5 million in education dollars for Baltimore City, says Verdery.

According to Hogan’s office, his budget avoids imposing furloughs or staff cuts on state workers by instead requiring two percent, across-the-board cuts at all state agencies. But Charly Carter, executive director of Maryland Working Families, a progressive organization that works on policies affecting working-class Marylanders, says state agencies may, on their own, decide to meet this two percent cut by reducing hours, furloughing workers, or reducing staff, making Hogan’s claim more of a passing of the buck.

State employees are also losing an expected

pay-raise, after foregoing pay increases and enduring other things like furloughs and accepting a greater health care contribution during the recession, says Carter.

“When this state was in its most dire circumstances, it was the public employees that bailed the state out. . . . So I think going back to them and just saying, ‘Well, there’s a piggy bank, we’ll just take it out of their pocket,’ I think that that’s a problem,” said Carter.

Reductions in salaries or to the total number of state workers could hit Baltimore City particularly hard, as state employees account for over 10 percent of the city’s labor force according to the most recent data (2013) from the Maryland Dept. of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.

Both Verdery and Carter say that there was no need to attempt to resolve Maryland’s structural budget deficit in a single year, and that budget cuts, while perhaps necessary in light of the deficit and Maryland’s constitutional requirement to maintain a balanced budget, could have been spread out over time in order to ease the effects of any funding reductions.

“There’s a lot of ways to approach a deficit,” said Verdery, “and usually what’s most successful is when the state does it year by year. The economy is getting better, it’s likely that revenues could be up next year, so why cut so severely right now?” ralejandro@afro.com

authority to hold the very small number of officers accountable that act out of line,” said Harris. “This legislative package is designed to give him additional authority and address the community concerns that police officers are allowed to play by a different set of rules than everybody else.”

For Leo Burroughs, chairperson of the Community of Concerned Citizens in Baltimore City, the mayor’s proposals address a definite limitation of the current police disciplinary process.

“It’s a surprise to many in our community . . . that the commissioner doesn’t have the power that we thought he had to control the behavior [of], and to discipline, officers as one would expect, given the bureaucracy and given the fact that he is commissioner of the Baltimore City Police Department,” said Burroughs, who added that while the mayor’s initiative sounded “credible,” its success would hinge on a broader package of reforms including police-worn body cameras, and

greater civilian review possibilities over police misconduct cases.

The mayor did say that Baltimore’s police body camera program would be announced “soon.”

Russell Neverdon, prominent Baltimore area defense attorney and a former military police officer for 12 years, said he applauded the mayor’s attempt to enact changes to the LEOBR, though he would have preferred the mayor had moved on this issue sooner. For Neverdon, officers must be protected, but their work is too easily undermined when the inability to discipline officers for misconduct erodes the community’s trust.

“We’ve got to free up the immediate administrators, or the supervisors, or the front line supervisors, to untie their hands so that they can swiftly move in and impart discipline that’s necessary to remove officers off the street when certain things occur,” said Neverdon. ralejandro@afro.com

Batts

we still not have to address that fact that we have Black on Black crime, that’s taken the vast majority of lives out there in the community?” said Batts.

He adds that one of the conversations among law enforcement leaders nationally is what role the police actually play in this broader discussion – are police really the root of the problem, or simply the face?

While Batts says that law enforcement leaders must play a role in such conversations in the public sphere, he was reluctant to discuss whether Maryland’s law enforcement officers bill of rights (LEOBR) needs to be amended. He noted that Maryland’s LEOBR originated in the 1970s based on political considerations he never played a role in.

“It is incumbent upon our legislators to sit down and craft documents . . . that fit their constituency,” said Batts, adding later, “[LEOBRs] are

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and become part of the solution?” Batts said.

Effective law enforcement, says Batts, is not determined from the perspective of the police alone, but in conversation with the community. “I feel this with all my heart, most police officers feel they are doing God’s work ... they’re coming out here, trying to make a difference, and trying to help,” said Batts.

“But the leadership of [law enforcement] organizations has to make sure that the work that we’re doing corresponds to what the community wants us to do in a way that the community sees [fit].”

Batts gives the example of BPD helping to drive down the homicide rate in

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Baltimore to “one of the lowest rates in the history of this city,” noting that, while this may be a success from a law enforcement perspective, success has to be measured in tandem with community expectations.

“We still were off target with what the community wanted us to do,” said Batts.

The protests that have shaped much of the national conversation on policing since August, says Batts, are not solely about police. While police may be the face of government as one of the few branches with which citizens engage on a regular basis, the displeasure with police, he feels, likely signals a broader displeasure with government and the policies that originate there, which police enforce.

“If you had police departments today that were aligned with the communities, would we still not have to address the poverty? Would we still not have to address the educational levels? Would

laws that are put in place for different reasons – to protect police officer rights and also to protect citizen rights.

It’s up to the legislature to balance those.”

On whether strengthened civilian review boards could ensure greater accountability, Batts was more direct, drawing on his experience in California, where both Long Beach and Oakland had civilian review boards. “I ask the question, is [civilian review] getting you what you want? Because even though we’ve had those civilian review boards in both those cities, I don’t think it accomplished [greater trust and transparency]. I look at the city of Los Angeles, they’ve had civilian review for 30 or 40 years. It hasn’t accomplished that there either.

So I don’t know if having just a civilian review board . . . is getting our community to the endpoint that they’re looking for.” ralejandro@afro.com

February February7, 7,2015 2015--February February13, 7, 2015, 2015, The The Afro-American Afro-American

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McCray to Start Conversation About Investing in Workforce

By Roberto Alejandro Special to the AFRO Del. Cory McCray (D-Baltimore City) has introduced a bill requiring contractors hired forsome state projects to pay the full cost of apprenticeship programs for apprentice laborers in their employ.

McCray hopes the proposed measure will jump-start a conversation about how state dollars invested in construction projects can yield their greatest possible return and help grow the middle-class.

Under the legislation, any contractor or subcontractor working on a state-funded project subject to Maryland’s prevailing wage law

would be required to pay the full costs of apprenticeship programs for any apprentices they employ.

Prevailing wage laws guarantee certain wages and benefits for laborers on projects in which Maryland is acting as the principal investor and that involve awards over $500,000, says McCray.

Including the cost of apprenticeship programs among those guaranteed benefits is important, says McCray, because it removes a potential obstacle to completing an apprenticeship program – costs – and because workers who complete such programs average about $25,000 more in annual wages than those

who do not.

The costs of apprenticeships, in essence, would then be transferred to the state, since the costs to contractors of paying for the apprenticeships would be reflected in the bid submitted for state contracts and included in the award.

The measure, according to the freshman delegate, is about investing in Maryland’s economy.

“We have to make sure that for every dollar that we’re spending, we’re bringing back $3,” said McCray. “And how do you do that?

You make sure that you’re training a workforce. You’re making sure that that money comes back into the economy. You’re making sure that

Legalizing Marijuana Continued from A1

presented last Friday by Colorado State House Representative Jonathan Singer, who sponsored and worked to place Colorado’s legalization measure before voters for a 2013 referendum, and Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes, who put an end to prosecutions for marijuana possession after taking office in 2010 and sponsored Washington state’s ballot initiative to legalize the substance.

“We need to treat marijuana like the drug that it is, not the drug some fear it to be,” said Singer at a Maryland American Civil Liberties Union organized press conference held before his testimony. “That means you regulate it, that means you tax it, that means you watch where it’s going, and in Colorado, it’s working.”

Singer said Colorado has succeeded in developing a system for keeping the marijuana trade out of the hands of criminals, and that teen use of marijuana, traffic fatalities due to marijuana, and crime as a whole have all either stayed stagnant or dropped since the legalization measure passed. “The concerns about the sky falling haven’t born themselves out,” said Singer.

Also speaking at the press conference, Holmes said that when he first took office, he

dismissed all pending marijuana possession cases in Seattle. “In a city with a seven percent African-American population, 59 percent of the pending marijuana possession cases were against African Americans, and it’s an example that I think has replicated across the country,” Holmes said. He added that crime has continued to decrease in Seattle despite legalization.

The disparate impact of marijuana arrests on communities of color has certainly been replicated in Baltimore, said state delegate Curt Anderson (D-Baltimore City). “In 2013, in Baltimore City, there were 6500 total arrests for marijuana. Of the 6,500, 5,400 were African Americans,” Anderson said. He continued, saying Maryland’s recent decriminalization has failed to have its intended effects as police agencies have been slow to act.

“So we’re working harder to try to get a taxation and regulation of marijuana,

in place,” said Anderson, sponsor of the House version of the marijuana taxation and regulation bill currently under consideration in the General Assembly.

The measures which legalized marijuana in Colorado and Washington have come under some criticism for excluding many people of color who are ineligible to become distributors due to past marijuana convictions. Sen. Jamie Raskin (D-Montgomery County), sponsor of the senate version of the marijuana taxation

“We need to treat marijuana like the drug that it is, not the drug some fear it to be.”

Elks

–Jonathan Singer

and regulation effort in Maryland, said Maryland’s bill addresses this problem. “In the current legislation that we’re working on, we . . . have minority business protection, and we also have a statement that conviction for only a non-violent marijuana possession offense in

Photo courtesy of Del. Cory McCray

Del. Cory McCray (D-Baltimore City) is introducing a bill on apprenticeship programs he hopes will jump start a conversation about how best to create middle-class jobs throughout the state.

the past is not a bar to participating in the new industry,” said Raskin.

According to Sara Love, public policy director Maryland ACLU, the legislators who heard Singer and Holmes’s testimonies posed questions on how legalization works in practice, with a particular emphasis on concerns about teen use and impaired driving, rather than on whether marijuana should be legalized. “This is happening already. People are already on our roads impaired. Teens say it is easier to buy marijuana than it is to buy beer.

When you look at the regulated system, they’re able to address these things,” said Love, who added licensed distributors are more likely to work to keep the drug out of the hands of teenagers for fear of losing their license.

Singer said that while Colorado has had a good experience so far, finding banks willing to make business loans to entrepreneurs has proved challenging since selling marijuana is still a crime under federal law. “Those are still outlaying issues that we need to resolve, but the net-product has been positive so far,” said Singer. ralejandro@afro.com

LET US CHANGE

THE WAY YOU FEEL

Continued from A1

community remains intact.

Baltimore’s oldest Elks chapter is located in West Baltimore and was established in January 1900. According to Mike MacKey, the lodge’s resident historian and a member since he returned from service in Vietnam in 1968, the lodge, known as Monumental Lodge No. 3, has been at its current location of McMechen Street and Madison Avenue since 1929.

“In the early days, these places really were the only places where Blacks could come and be together and do things, and be involved,” said MacKey. The lodge has counted luminaries such as Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, all the men in Baltimore’s influential Mitchell family (including Clarence Mitchell, who helped secure important federal civil rights protections for African Americans through his work with the NAACP and Leadership Council on Civil Rights in the 50s and 60s), and Baltimore’s first Black city solicitor, George Russell.

“Anybody in this town that was somebody . . . were members here at some point in time,” said MacKey. This storied past has helped secure the lodge’s designation as a historical landmark, granted by the city of Baltimore last June, according to Baltimore City public records.

The lodge played an important role in the social life of Black Baltimoreans for generations, and prides itself on serving the city through its benevolent works, including teaming up with American Legion Post No. 19 to adopt nearby Eutaw-Marshburn Elementary School. The two organizations host an annual block party and distribute educational necessities for neighborhood children. “We give them school supplies and those kinds of things when [the kids] return to school,” said MacKey. The lodge also runs a shoe bank, where members donate brand new children’s shoes, as well as an annual Thanksgiving dinner for the entire community, with as many as 300 people being fed at a time.

According to James Burton, a member of the Elks order for the past 15 years, the lodge also hosts dinners for Christmas, and at other points in the year. “That’s all part of who we

people from Maryland, people from the city of Baltimore, are working on those projects. Then you’re infusing into the local economy – the bakeries, the grocer, the gas station, they all have been affected by that $1.”

McCray’s bill will be considered by the House of Delegates’ Economic Matters Committee.

According to McCray, the bill is co-sponsored by Dels. Benjamin Brooks Sr. (D-Baltimore County), Luke Clippinger (D-Baltimore City), Bill Frick (D-Montgomery County), Cheryl Glenn (D-Baltimore City), and Jeffrey Waldstreicher (D-Montgomery County). ralejandro@afro.com

ABOUT SECURING A HOME LOAN.

Photo by Roberto Alejandro

Mike MacKey, Monumental Lodge No. 3’s resident historian, has been a member since 1968. are and what we are, to do for the community,” said Burton. “That’s one of our mottoes, to do for the community, and to give back to the community, and to help the community all we can.”

For Burton, the greatest work the lodge can do is to assist the area youth in any way they can.

“They (youth) need us more than anything else, they need guidance,” said Burton. “They need people to be a mentor to them, to guide them in the right direction.”

For Vincent Blackwell, a member of the lodge for seven years and a member of American Legion Post No. 19 for29 years, the service combined with the fraternity offered is what compelled him to join the Elks. “The camaraderie, the fellowship, the friendship, this is what made me join basically, plus we do a lot, as brother Burton said, for the community,” said Blackwell. “It’s just a great place to be.” ralejandro@afro.com

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Rates are effective as of 2/1/2015 and are based on a 15-year fixed primary residence mortgage up to $500,000 with a 20% down payment and 1 point, and result in 180 monthly payments of $6.85 per $1,000 borrowed. Estimated monthly payment does not include amounts for taxes and insurance, as applicable, which will result in a higher monthly payment. Maximum Loan to Value (LTV) is 97% for purchase money loans and 85% for refinances with no cash out. For borrowers with an LTV greater than 80%, mortgage insurance is required, which will increase the monthly payment. Closing costs apply. For loans over $500,000, please call for terms and conditions. APR means Annual Percentage Rate. This advertisement does not constitute a commitment to lend, and all applications are subject to credit approval. Terms and conditions apply. See branch for complete details. This is a limited time offer and may be withdrawn at any time without prior notice.

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The Afro-American, Afro-American, February February 7, 7, 2015 2015 -- February February13, 7, 2015 2015

Business Profile ‘Going Raw With Soul’

By Ajoya Long Special to the AFRO In The Land of Kush, one can find a vegan style restaurant with healthier options for the Baltimore community, thanks to owner, Gregory Brown, 44, who promotes health, while keeping the soulful taste of popular foods.

In his desire to represent African heritage, Brown decided to give a “modern” twist to its history. “I wanted a name that represented the pre-Atlantic slave trade so that’s how the name came about,” says Brown.

The Land of Kush serves vegetarian and vegan foods that keep their flavorful tastes familiar to most people. The restaurant has

Obituary

Bertha B. Thornton Milburn McBride 1912-2015

Funeral services for Bertha B. Thornton Milburn McBride Affectionately known as “Baby Sis” to family and friends will be held at Trinity Baptist Church, 1601 Druid Hill Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21217 on January 31, 2015, Wake 10am and Funeral 11am. She died on January 22, 2015 at Augsburg Lutheran Home after a long illness. She was 102.

She was a member of Trinity Baptist Church since 1943 and worked in

Obituary

Evelyn M. Stokes

February 22, 1949 to January 22, 2015 Evelyn M. Stokes of Abingdon, was born in Oak City, N.C., the fifth of seven children to the late Willie C. Jones Sr. and Thelma Lee (Walton) Jones.

Mrs. Stokes moved to Brooklyn, N.Y. with her family, where she graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School. She later studied accounting at Harford Community College and the Community College of Baltimore County.

She married the late William M. Stokes Sr. and they had two children, Miriam M. Stokes of Dundalk and William M. Stokes Jr. of Baltimore.

Mrs. Stokes worked at the former Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (now CSX Transportation), in various administrative positions, until she retired after 33 ½ years of service, to care for her ailing husband. She belonged

various auxiliary of church. She leaves to cherish her memory her devoted children; two sons, George L. Milburn, Sr. (Barbara) and John L. Milburn, Sr. (Elizabeth); five daughters, Mary L. C. Clay, Bertha M. Blackwell (Paul Blackwell), Deaconess Evelyn R. Robinson, Henrietta C. Coward (Claude Coward), Deacon Mabel L. MilburnJackson of Beltsville, Maryland. Four sons preceded her in death.

to Faith Baptist Church, in Baltimore, for over 40 years.

In addition to her children, Mrs. Stokes is survived by four grandchildren, David Lindberg, Maurice Harris and Maurissa Stokes and Madison Stokes; two great grandchildren Demi and Amari Myers; three brothers, John H. Jones Sr. and his wife Marney, Joseph C. Jones and his wife Brenda, and Carl L. Jones Sr.; one sister, Mable Wilson; two sisters-in-law, Myrtis Jones and Hazel Jones; one brother-in-law, Charles Mason; two uncles, Joseph Jones and his wife Mary and Joshua Jones; one aunt, Ethel Miller and her husband James; and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, other relatives and friends.

She was predeceased by her beloved husband of 35 years, and two brothers, Willie C. Jones Jr. and Early J. Jones.

Services were held Jan. 30 at Faith Baptist Church in East Baltimore. Interment was at Garrison Forest Veteran’s Cemetery.

been open for four years, but Brown has been in business since 2004.

Inspired by his vision board, Brown used his aspirations to further his plans.

“Through the practice of doing that, the idea of owning my own restaurant came out of that and the fact that I was a vegetarian or just becoming a vegetarian at that time that’s how the concept of the vegetarian restaurant came about.

“We consider ourselves as the ultimate vegetarian experience. We specialize in a vegetarian soul food cuisine. We wanted to attract people not only who were vegan and vegetarian, but who weren’t,” says Brown.

Despite the disproportional rate of heart disease between Whites and Blacks, Brown advises a slow transition towards veganism.

“Here in Baltimore, you have a lot of urban farms, so you’re able to pick up produce and get started and start preparing some fresh produce and bringing that stuff into the house,” says Brown.

Brown also suggests including at least one vegan meal a day. In addition, one can

also take part in “Meatless Mondays,” a day of meals prepared without using any meats.

“When we change our diets or how we eat, it is changing our lifestyle and it is a lifestyle change,” says Brown.

As the dietary choices of Blacks shift, so will The Land of Kush’s restaurant goals.

“We will like to franchise the restaurant. We really want to take this thing at minimal wide if not worldwide. We’re looking at a second location that we would like to do here in Baltimore, D.C, and Philly,” says Brown.

To those who may be skeptical of trying vegan foods, Brown says, “As African Americans, I think we should step outside of what’s comfortable for us because we have to do those things to be successful and to further ourselves in this world. So, don’t be afraid, step outside your box, try some new things and educate yourself.”

The Land of Kush is located at 840 N. Eutaw Street in Baltimore and can be reached at 410-225-5874.Check it out on Facebook also.

Obituary

Napoleon Dobson

1927 - 2015 • Former First Lady of Union Baptist Church Napoleon Dobson, widow of the late Rev. Vernon N. Dobson, died Jan. 27, at her home in Ashburton. She was born in 1927 in Cuero, Texas and, with Rev. Dobson, raised seven children.

She taught in the Baltimore school system, after graduating from Coppin College.

She leaves to celebrate their memories of her; six children: Rosalind, Sandra, Keith, Kevin,

Kim and Donna; one sister, Johnetta; 11 grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews, other family members and friends. Her son, Michael, preceded her in death.

A memorial service will be held, noon, Feb. 7 at Sharon Baptist Church, 1373 Stricker Street in west Baltimore, after a family hour at 11 a.m.

February 7, 2015 - February 13, 2015 The Afro-American

EDITORIAL

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Who Will Look Out For Equity, Equal Opportunity and the HBCU Interests If Caret is the Next Chancellor?

When it comes to the University System of Maryland (USM), in the eyes of many members of the Black community, a fox has been deployed into the educational chicken coup to guard our HBCU chicks. Such characterization springs from the USM Board of Regents’ recent appointment of Robert Caret as chancellor of the system. In that position, he will oversee the 12 public USM institutions, including Bowie, Coppin and UMES, three of the state’s four Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

From 2003 to 2011, Caret was the president of Towson University. In that role he was a principle proponent of unnecessary duplication of academic programs, including a joint MBA program between Towson and the University of Baltimore that in 2013, a federal court determined was but one of a plethora of constitutional violations precipitated by Maryland upon the HBCUs in this state and the students who attend them.

The approval of the joint Towson/University of Baltimore MBA program was a clear duplication of a pre-existing MBA program at Morgan State University. The court found such approval to be an unconstitutional violation of the state’s desegregation obligations that resulted in creating a segregative effect at both Towson and Morgan and thus diminished the objective of eliminating the vestiges of the legislatively required segregation historically carried on in this state. Therefore Caret’s Towson MBA program was an impediment to diversity, promoted segregation and added to diminishing Morgan being competitive with historically White institutions because as stated in the court’s decision: “…in the absence of a competitive academic advantage, non-Black students have less of an incentive to enroll in what is otherwise perceived as a school for Black Students.”

The absence of a competitive advantage caused by the duplication against HBCUs in Maryland is dramatically pointed out in the lawsuit’s decision that compares the number of distinct non-core, high demand programs offered at historically White institutions with those offered at HBCUs. Among other things, the court’s decision points out that an average of 17 distinct non-core high demand programs were offered at each of the Traditionally White Institutions in Maryland while an average of only three were offered at each of the state’s HBCUs. The Maryland HBCUs are thus (i) unable to attract as many students (White and Black) because of their lower numbers of unique high demand course programs, and (ii) graduate far fewer students who can pursue, effectively compete for and secure high demand career paths. In the end, the court’s ultimate conclusion that the State of Maryland continues to maintain and perpetuate a separate and unequal system of higher education that is segregated by race can be laid directly at the feet of Caret and the state’s policymakers whose disregard for the law has continued policies and practices that foster discrimination and perpetuate segregated conditions among our campuses.

Our concern with his past actions ought to be enough, but with the Caret appointment spring further concerns of how his past actions may be a sign as to the future actions he may (or may not) implement as the new USM chancellor and the threat such future actions (or inactions) may pose to the HBCUs in that system and Morgan, which is the only HBCU outside that system.

Given Caret’s past actions and the absence of any clear explanation as to how he intends to address the damage and violations outlined by the court, in which he was a willing participant, we indeed are extremely wary of Caret’s

appointment as the next USM chancellor.

It is for this reason we believe that at least one minimal solution to protecting the interests of Maryland’s HBCUs offered by state Sen. Joan Carter Conway is a sensible one and should be seriously considered. Sen. Conway’s SB 19 legislation, if enacted, would give the Maryland General Assembly the ultimate power to confirm the Regents’ appointment to the position of chancellor, a procedure that is not without precedent in other states.

Given the magnitude of violations outlined by the court in the lawsuit that have impacted, indeed impeded, the progress of Maryland’s HBCUs and HBCU students over the past 60+ years, the Black community has no credible foundation for any confidence in the state higher education boards and leadership when it comes to the interests of the Maryland HBCUs. Therefore, as indicated in the Conway proposed legislation, the state’s legislative forum should have the final advise and consent approval authority over who should be the USM chancellor so every and all aspects of such appointment can be fairly heard and challenged by the people’s representatives.

In such instance it is our belief that only then can we have a true sense that our HBCU students will be given a fairer chance to have better opportunities to benefit from the competitive quality education and future career paths the recent lawsuit reflects the State of Maryland has consistently denied them both before and after the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision of the United States Supreme Court. http://www.lawyerscommittee.org/admin/education/ documents/files/Coalition-v-MHEC-memorandum-decision.pdf

COMMENTARY

Why African Americans are in Desperate Need of Mortgage Help

Marcia Griffin

Buying a house or a piece of property to call your own is part of the American Dream. But, if you’re African American, that dream is becoming further and further out of reach.

Whether you’re a renter trying to buy your first home or a homeowner looking for a modification to avoid foreclosure, it has become more difficult than ever to get approved for a loan and just as challenging to understand the nuances of what lenders

are looking for.

For African Americans, the mortgage landscape is particularly harrowing.

According to sociologists from Rice and Cornell universities, African Americans are 45 percent more likely than Whites to go from owning their homes to renting them.

There are many factors contributing to this startling statistic. Among them: • African Americans are more likely to lose their homes to foreclosure.

• African Americans have been more targeted by predatory lenders.

• African Americans have less wealth to put toward homeownership in the first place.

During the Great Recession, between 2007 and 2010, wealth for Blacks dropped by an average of 31 percent, home equity dropped by 28 percent and retirement savings dropped by 35 percent. During that same period, Whites lost only 11 percent in wealth, 24 percent in home equity and actually gained 9 percent in retirement savings.

So are African Americans destined to fall further behind?

Not if they are aware of the statistics and trends and how to overcome them.

For example, in inner cities, conveniently located houses will go to non-minority people who can afford the down payment and have excellent credit. Meanwhile, African Americans will be pushed further and further out, making it

increasingly difficult to get to work plus; stuck with sky high rents and slum landlords.

Already, Wall Street investors have bought thousands of foreclosed homes once owned by African Americans. They are now the owners and we are the renters. This is the scheme. Rents are predicted to go up 20 percent per year.

To make matters worse, when investors sell the properties, African Americans are not the buyers. The mortgage approval requirements are exceedingly high. Today, the average mortgage denial has a 722 credit score. The average score for the people we serve is 630. Since 96 percent of African-American wealth is in our homes, we lose.

While these statistics and trends are grim, they are certainly not insurmountable. With goal-oriented financial education and information, thousands of homeowners have achieved their financial goals in recent years. Not only that, but many families have achieved 0 percent foreclosure rates - a remarkable feat in the recent economy.

Here is some valuable information that could lead in that direction: • Remember, the mortgage industry is in business to make lots of money by any means necessary. The less you know, the fewer your options and the more you can be taken advantage of.

• Non-profit counseling and credit assistance for distressed homeowners and prospective homebuyers are available, but rarely marketed. A lot of this is valuable, free information from experts in mortgage and credit fields.

• In many states, there is government home buying money that goes unused. This money is also not marketed. Call your Department of Housing as soon as possible.

• Limit the financial information you get online. Speak to a professional over the phone or in person so you can check out their credentials.

• Without some guidance and information the mortgage process can be confusing, difficult and misleading. One wrong decision and thousands of dollars can be lost. So get the information you need.

Marcia Griffin is founder of HomeFree-USA, a leading intermediary for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, committed to turning around home-ownership rates for African-Americans and other minorities. For more information: marciaghfusa@msn.com; 202 288 8510; or call toll free: (855) 493-4002. Also visit HomeFreeUSA.org; Twitter: @marciahomefree

The Coalition Speaks Advocacy comes in many forms and the large group of women present at the confirmation hearing for attorney general nominee, Loretta Lynch, was a true demonstration of advocacy in action.

At the Senate Judiciary hearing chaired by Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Ohio), U.S. Attorney Loretta E. Lynch was the epitome of great intellect, a solid knowledge base, strong family values, and a sense of self and purpose that could not be warped by stinging questions.

This was a great opportunity for American History classes to tune in to see the circuitous actions of Committee members and to witness the undaunted strength of a strong Black woman who meets all the qualifications to be attorney general of the world’s greatest democracy.

One could imagine that the daring spirit of Harriet Tubman, the determination of Mary Church Terrell, the boldness of Mary McLeod Bethune, and the superlative social justice consciousness of Dorothy I. Height were evident in Loretta Lynch’s diplomacy, keen answers

and indescribable composure.

Majority members Orrin Hatch(R-UT), Jeff Sessions(R-AL),Lindsay Graham(R-SC),John Cornyn(R-TX),Michael Lee(R-UT),Ted Cruz(R-TX),Jeff Flake(R-AZ), David Vitter(R-LA), David Perdue(R-GA), and Thom Tillis(R-NC) never let up in piercing questions , many attempting to test her independence.

Hats off to Senators Leahy, Feinstein, Schumer, Durbin, Whitehouse, Klobuchart, Franken, Coons, and Blumenthal whose statements and questions allowed the Judiciary Committee to see the depth and breadth of Ms. Lynch’s experiences. When she is confirmed, she will be the first African-American woman to serve as attorney general of the United States of America.

Advocacy must never die!!!!

Submitted by the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Baltimore Metropolitan Chapter

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The Afro-American, February 7, 2015 - February 13, 2015

February 7, 2015 - February 7, 2015, The Afro-American

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Digital Redlining

Continued from A1

promotion, news and much more are all moving to the online information superhighway. But while some are on the fast lane, too many are forced to traverse by foot and donkey-cart speeds.

And, that connectivity divide—usually among poor, rural and Black and Brown communities, who have zero or merely subpar access to the marvels of digital technology and the Internet— can create permanently marginalized individuals who lack the skills and tools to navigate successfully in an increasingly globalized, knowledge-based society, experts say.

“You cannot function at a high level in our digital age if you don’t have broadband,” said Mark Cooper, director of research at the Consumer Federation of America. “As more and more of daily life goes on the Web, then being left behind becomes worse and worse. We have a good 20 percent of the nation that is at least two generations behind. And in cyberspace 20 years is an eternity. So you have permanently disadvantaged communities.”

Some advocates believe that like sociopolitical apartheid, the digital divide is being perpetrated by the deliberate exclusion of certain communities on the basis of geography, race, ethnicity and income from the deployment of advanced information/ telecommunication technology, a practice they term “digital redlining.”

Follow The Red Line

Redlining was a term coined in the 1960s to describe the practice of denying or charging more for service to persons in certain communities—usually Black, inner-city neighborhoods—no matter how qualified the individual.

The term originated since banks—then the most infamous perpetrators—would draw a red line on a map to delineate the areas they would not serve.

The discriminatory practice devastated those communities, spreading blight, until community activist groups raised a loud enough outcry to prompt legislative action. Congress passed the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974 and Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, which outlawed redlining and forced those private companies to reinvest in the communities they had previously shunned.

But the battle of discriminatory service was not over. Enter “electronic redlining.”

During the early 1970s advocates fought to ban cable redlining—ensuring communities of color and other disadvantaged communities got the same terms, condition and levels of service. The response was federal legislation, the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984—which expanded upon the 1934 Communications Act-in which Section 621 bans redlining, saying local franchising authorities “shall assure that access to cable service is not denied to any group of potential residential cable subscribers because of the income of the residents of the local area in which such group resides.”

In the ‘80s and ‘90s, the fight moved to the telephone industry—people in poor and minority communities were either not being connected, were getting inferior service or were paying for advanced services such as call waiting, call forwarding and three-way calling though they were often the last to receive the actual connections. The poor quality of service was particularly detestable, many experts and advocates said, since Blacks and Latinos were generally spending more on telephone services than Whites.

A noted example of the battle between industry and activists was the attempt by Ameritech—a consortium of four Regional Bell Operating Companies or “Baby Bells”—to create “video dialtone” networks in the early 1990s. The Federal Communications Commission voted in July 1992 to allow local telephone companies to create the VDT networks, which offered users access to a number of advanced options through their telephones. But civil and consumer groups challenged Ameritech’s VDT deployment plan, saying it showed stark patterns of by-passing minority, low-income and rural communities. For example, Cooper, of the Consumer Federation of America did an analysis comparing census information to maps and other documents local phone companies submitted to the FCC along with their applications. The results showed that in at least two areas, entire counties were circumvented in favour of more affluent counties, Cooper said at the time. In the DMV (D.C., Maryland and Virginia) for example, Bell Atlantic sidestepped the District and Prince George’s County, Md. – both of which have large minority populations – in favor of wealthier suburbs in northern Virginia and Montgomery County, Md. The companies denied the charge that they were redlining, pointing to factors such as the presence of other competitors. Eventually, they dropped the proposals.

Beginning in the early ‘80s, policymakers began to respond to concerns about the disconnect in phone services. In 1985, the FCC under President Reagan created Lifeline, a discounted phone service for low-income qualifying customers. About 10 years later, Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which provided regulation for telephone, cable and other telecommunications. The law opened the industry to competition while also banning redlining and advancing the principle of universal service.

It codified the concept—which has its roots in Postal Act of 1792—by establishing the Universal Service Fund (USF) and mandating that “[c]onsumers in all regions of the Nation, including low-income consumers and those in rural, insular, and high-cost areas should have access to telecommunications and information services.”

Redlining Redux

America—and the world at large—is now at a new informational and communications technology frontier. But, public interest groups contend, technological progress seem to come with the same old social problems à la the digital divide and redlining.

“I thought we’d never have to fight this battle again,” said David Honig, president emeritus and general counsel of the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council (MMTC).

In 2002, for example, the Denver Business Journal reported that AT&T Broadband faced a class-action lawsuit in southern Florida for allegedly failing to provide or overcharging for broadband services in African-American neighborhoods. “Only 1 percent of eligible African-American households have access

morguefile

In the ‘80s and ‘90s, the fight moved to the telephone industry. to high-speed broadband Internet service as opposed to 100 percent of eligible white households,” the suit claimed. AT&T Broadband denied the claims.

Then in 2004, when SBC Communications (now AT&T Corp.) announced its Project Lightspeed, a plan to invest billions of dollars in a fiber-optic network that would provide high-speed Internet and cable TV services, media justice activists cried foul at the company’s professed plan to cherrypick customers. During a briefing with investors and analysts, SBC officials presented a bar graph that outlined its plans to deploy the new services to only 5 percent of “low-value customers” while targeting 90 percent of high-spending customers. That is the definition of digital redlining, advocates said.

“This is another discriminatory scheme disguised as technological progress by SBC,” said the Rev. James L. Demus III, co-director of the Ministerial Alliance Against the Digital Divide (MAADD), at the time. “These so-called investment proposals by SBC come with one fat string attached: no franchise agreement, and thus no requirement to invest in an entire community versus only the wealthy parts.”

Now, some are questioning the roll-out of Google’s Fiber.

The fiber-optic data network offers speeds at more than

Google’s own online ‘Fiberhood Tracker’ looks like the kind of redlining plan that banks used to draw, favoring the affluent and leaving the poorer and minority communities in the cold.”

– Keith Robinson 100 times the current standard—more than 1,000 megabits per second compared to the Federal Communications Commission’s 2010 broadband standard of 4 megabits per second—directly to homes, businesses and public access buildings. “It’s the difference between driving a Ferrari on the German Autobahn where there is no speed limit versus a skateboard on a dirt road,” as telecommunications analyst Bruce Kushnick, executive director of the New Networks Institute, once described the disparity between advanced and increasingly obsolete broadband technology.

The inherent opportunities of Fiber and similar offerings— bandwidth that can more efficiently handle all the technology in new-age homes, innovation, entrepreneurship, entertainment and more—have many people excited. In fact, Kansas City, Mo., which won a national competition to be the first Fiberconnected city, has been dubbed “Silicon Prairie” because of the resulting influx of tech entrepreneurs.

“Kansas City has become an attractive spot for the next generation of entrepreneurs and workers,” said Mayor Pro Tem Cindy Circo, who spearheaded the effort to bring Fiber to the city.

Fiber’s deployment is based on a build-to-demand model— cities are divided into “fiberhoods” that are mostly based on local neighborhood definitions, and service is only offered to fiberhoods that meet sign-up quotas. Households interested in receiving Fiber has to pay a $300 installation fee and monthly rates of $120 for gigabit Internet and TV and $70 for Internet only. Google also offers a slower service (5 megabytes per second) free of charge for seven years—after a $300 installation fee that could be paid in $25-per-month installments for 12 months.

In Kansas City, initially, lower-come, majority-minority neighborhoods were left out as they failed to meet sign-up goals. And, advocates accused the Internet giant of cherrypicking “Cadillac” customers, further digitally polarizing the city’s residents.

“Google’s proposed plan to build a fiber-based broadband Internet network in Kansas sounds great in a press release, but as Missourians are quickly learning, the devil’s in the details,” said Keith Robinson, president of the St. Louis, Mo., A. Phillip Randolph Institute, in a letter to the editor, published Aug. 17, 2012, in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “The article failed to mention that Google will be ‘Google-lining’ — building and serving largely the wealthier communities that can afford to pay its substantial up-front fees and de facto redlining lessprivileged communities…. Google’s own online ‘Fiberhood Tracker’ looks like the kind of redlining plan that banks used to draw, favoring the affluent and leaving the poorer and minority communities in the cold.”

Google and its supporters denied the charge of redlining and defended its market-based approach to Fiber’s deployment, saying it makes faster, better broadband more affordable— thus addressing the digital divide—and that it empowers communities to choose for themselves.

“It was not a package that left people out. It was able to be tailored to every neighbourhood and household if they so

chose,” Circo, the Kansas City official, said.

Blair Levin, executive director of the Gig.U project, a group of research university communities seeking to accelerate next generation networks in their communities to support economic and educational development, and head of the committee that wrote the 2010 National Broadband Plan for the FCC, also argued the economic merits of Google’s plan to do a selective build-out based on demand.

“The accusation of redlining ignores the social contract underlying the telephone and cable networks (incumbent Internet service providers). For both, government granted a monopoly in exchange for a universal network build-out requirement. Those companies enjoyed decades of official protection from competition; circumstances that made the economics of the obligation work,” he said. “Governments did not, however, apply such build-out requirements to new entrants, as that would have killed investments in new competition. Google is a new entrant, with no monopoly advantages. To claim fairness requires a universal build-out ignores the advantages the incumbents had for decades.

“Claiming ‘fairness’ also ignores economics,” Levin continued. “As we saw with the data from the National Broadband Plan, these networks are staggeringly expensive.

Breaking free from the status quo requires both creative and viable economic models. After all, the broadband operators are businesses, not charities. If communities do not work to lower barriers to entry and enable efficient builds, the necessary new investment simply will not happen.”

In Kansas City, Google sent employees door-to-door and worked with community groups to help spread the adoption of Fiber in the lower-income neighborhoods that had not initially shown the qualifying level of demand. It also worked with local nonprofits that teach digital literacy and sell cheap computers.

However, an October 2014 Wall Street Journal survey of Fiber-adoption in several lower-, middle- and higher-income neighborhoods in Kansas City showed a persistent disparity.

The survey of six low-income neighborhoods found that just 10 percent of residents had subscribed to Google’s gigabit service, and an additional 5 percent use the slower version.

Contrastingly, 42 percent of the residents in the five proximate middle-income and wealthier neighborhoods had signed on for the gigabit service, and an additional 11 percent took the slower version.

The conclusion drawn by WSJ—one echoed by Google representatives—is that the gaps in digital inclusion are less about where broadband is deployed—redlining—and more about people not seeing the importance of the Internet or not being able to use it.

In an October 2014 blog, Google Fiber’s head of community impact Erica Swanson cited research by the Pew Center for Research, which showed that 34 percent of people who don’t use the Internet don’t yet see it as relevant to their lives, and 32 percent point to usability as an obstacle.

“This gets to the core of problem for digital inclusion– not the lack of affordability, but the lack of digital skills and relevance for too many people. On that front, Google Fiber is a plus,” Levin said. “What we have seen in Kansas City is that by making digital inclusion a topic du jour, Google’s fiberhood rallies helped mobilize resources and attention to address the tough issues holding back progress.”

Certainly education is a key component to closing the digital divide, media justice advocates said, but they’re not buying that market-based plans that deploy advanced broadband services only to those communities that meet certain “pocketbook” criteria aren’t actually widening the digital gap. And as poorer—usually Black and Brown—communities are relegated to having second-class or no Internet access, the effects will be devastating, they said.

“If you multiply what happened in Kansas City by 200… what we would have would be a replication of what happened in the transition from an agricultural to an industrial economy— second-class citizenship was institutionalized [among those who lacked the tools to survive in the new economy],” said Honig.

“Here we are the middle of another major transition, from an industrial to the digital age in which the baseline of technology will be super-fast broadband. And communities of color are being relegated to second-class citizenship again.”

Bridging the chasm between the digital “haves” and “have-nots” is a challenging undertaking given the underlying fundamental causes, advocates say.

“The digital divide is a reflection of larger social and economic divides,” said Tracy Rosenberg, executive director of Media Alliance, a California-based non-profit dedicated to media justice.

The CFA’s Mark Cooper agreed, saying political and economic forces in the U.S. either resist or do not promote “democratic egalitarianism.”

“The lack of universal service is endemic to market capitalism,” Cooper said. “Profit-making principles mean that lower-income neighbourhoods that do not generate high demand would not get the service.”

American policymakers have long recognized the inherent disparities of capitalism and have enacted policies to counteract them. For example, universal service policy was instituted to ensure everyone, regardless of income, had access to mail, telecommunication and media services, he said.

A similar type of “New Deal” policy that recognizes “that access to communication is a fundamental human right” needs to be developed for broadband to address issues such as digital redlining, Cooper argued.

Rosenberg agreed that broadband service providers should be classified as “common carriers” under Title II of the Communications Act, thus attaching universal service obligations.

“The idea that treating the Internet as a public utility is some wild, fringe, socialist craziness is unfounded because we treated many other utilities in that way and they made society better,” she said. “The Internet is not a luxury product; it is an essential fabric of the economic structure, and people who are locked out due to economic hardship are placed at a disadvantage, and it costs us all in the end.”

Read more of this and preceding articles in this series on AFRO.Com

February 7, 2015 - February 13, 2015, The Afro-American

B1

Carter G. Woodson: A Man Beyond His Time

By Zenitha Prince Senior AFRO Correspondent Carter G. Woodson seemed born to defy the odds.

The future father of Black history came into the world on Dec. 19, 1875, in New Canton, Va., during a time both of upheaval and promise. Twelve years before, President Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing Black slaves from centuries of cruel bondage. Ten years before, Confederate and Union forces—including Blacks— finally laid down their weapons, signalling the end of the Civil War and the demolition of the institution of slavery.

And then came Reconstruction.

“Woodson was born in 1875 toward the end of the Black Reconstruction period—about 10 years of enhanced freedom for Black people,” said Alvin Thornton, professor of political science at Howard University. “I don’t think Carter Woodson would have been able to do what he did if he were not born during that period. Black people were able to do things—they were able to run for office, vote and seek educational opportunities.”

Under the political auspices of Radical Republicans, former slaves or “freedmen” became politically active. In Virginia and throughout the South, they joined organizations such as the pro-Republican Union League, holding

New River Gorge National River website, National Park Service, Department of the Interior, United States Government.

Portrait of African-American historian Carter Godwin Woodson as a young man.

to depend on the Freedmen’s Bureau for basics such as clothing, food, water and health care.

Woodson’s parents, James and Anne Eliza were former slaves and, like many of their peers, were abjectly poor. “Carter, one of nine children, said he often left the dinner table hungry and sought food in nearby woods.

After he went to bed on Saturday nights, his mother washed the clothing he had been wearing so he could don clean clothes to wear to church on Sundays,” author Burnis R. Morris writes in Woodson’s biography on the website of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), which Woodson founded.

James Woodson, a Civil War veteran, learned carpentry from his father and did masonry for a living. It was a hard life, but unlike others, he refused to hire out his children to supplement the family income. Carter said his father “believed that such a life was more honorable than to serve one as a menial,” Morris cites.

Such dire straits meant Woodson had to work from an early age, however. He worked the family’s 5-6 acre farm, which was situated on poor land, but produced enough crops to feed the family. As a teen, when the family migrated to Huntington, W.Va., to take advantage of burgeoning opportunities, Woodson joined his older brother Robert in working to rebuild the railroad from Thurmond to Loup Creek; he also did a sixyear stint in the coalfields at Nuttallburg, in Fayette County.

Woodson’s responsibilities gave him little time to take advantage of the free education then available to Blacks. After the Civil War, missionary and aid groups from the

From a sketch by Jas E. Taylor/ Public Domain

Black women sewing at the Freedmen’s Union Industrial School, Richmond, Va.

conventions, and demanding universal male suffrage and equal treatment under the law, as well as demanding disfranchisement of ex-Confederates and the seizure of their plantations.

In fact, according to The African-American Odyssey: Volume II, 4th Edition, during the 1870s, about 1,465 Black men held political office in the South. Among the first to serve in the U.S. Congress were Rep. Robert C. DeLarge, of South Carolina; Rep. Jefferson Long, of Georgia; Sen. Hiram R. Revels, of Mississippi and several others.

It was during that time that Congress also passed the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which sought “to protect all citizens in their civil and legal rights.”

“Be it enacted,” the law read, “That all persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters, and other places of public amusement; subject only to the conditions and limitations established by law, and applicable alike to citizens of every race and color, regardless of any previous condition of servitude.”

But the time was also one of economic instability.

Virginia, the site of many Civil War battles, had been devastated. Railroads and other infrastructure lay in ruins; once-proud plantations had been reduced to burnt-out carcasses. Scores of former slaves had no jobs and had

Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Civil War Photographs

African American laborers on the U.S. Military Railroad in Northern Virginia, c. 1862 or 1863

“When you realize that only 2 percent of Americans were graduating from high school at the turn of the 19th century, then you know this is a guy who truly believes in education and is driven by something out of the ordinary.”

North worked with the Freedmen’s Bureau to build colleges, institutes and normal schools to educate former slaves throughout the South.

Beginning by offering elementary and secondary education after a decade Black colleges soon offered academic and trade courses and professional and military training. In fact, one of the most enduring and widely recognized achievements of the Bureau was its creation of universal, public school systems.

Young Woodson had a spotty school attendance record, however; he attended only on days of rain and Continued on B5

B2

The Afro-American, February 7, 2015 - February 13, 2015

H

undreds of pastors and ministers gathered to witness the passing of the president’s gavel of the Baltimore Ministers Conference of Baltimore and Vicinity from the Rev. Dr. John A. Lunn Sr., pastor of Berean Baptist Church, to the Rev. Dr. Errol D. Gilliard Sr., pastor of Greater Harvest Baptist Church in West Baltimore. The Jan. 5 event was a high worship experience, under the leadership of the Rev. Dr. A.C.D. Vaughn, pastor of Sharon Baptist Church, marked with history and reverence for the work done by the conference within and beyond the walls of the church.

Rev. Errol Gilliard, president, left, Bishop Reginald L. Kennedy, Dr. Kevin English, Rev. Helen Mayo, Rev. Donald Wright, Rev. Jesse Young and Rev. Hughetta Whitaker

Rev. H. Walden Wilson Wilson, Israel Baptist Church, shakes hands with the new president

Preaching brought this worshipper to her feet

Rev. Gilliard expresses appreciation for the encouragement he’s received

Dr. Kevin English, Bishop Reginald Kennedy, Rev. Helen Mayo and Dr. Walter Bronson, advisor and past president

Rev. A.C.D. Vaughn led worship

Dr. John Lunn passing the gavel to Rev. Errol Gilliard, new president of the Baptist Ministers Conference of Baltimore Maryland and Vicinity

Rev. Leroy T. Fitts, pastor emeritus, First Baptist Church in East Baltimore

Rev. Dr. Richard D. Dickens, pastor of New Metropolitan Baptist Church

Rev. Lunn supports Rev. Samuel Ray as he prays the installation prayer

Bishop J. L. Carter, senior pastor, Ark Church

With my hands lifted up City Council President, Bernard “Jack” Young presents a citation

Soloist Shernal Brown

Photos by Dr. A. Lois De Laine

Cheryl Bailey Solomon receives the Thelma Banks Cox Award from Monica Watkins, president, Baltimore Alumnae Chapter

Speaker The Honorable Alexis M. Herman, former Secretary, U.S. Department of Labor

In spite of the threat of heavy snow and freezing rain, the members of the Baltimore Alumnae Chapter, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, moved ahead with an optimistic outlook that the 93rd Anniversary of BAC and the 102nd Founders Day of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority would be a success. And according to Monica Watkins, president of BAC, “…we

have realized a celebration for the history books.”

The theme for the celebration was “Women of Purpose: From a Few…There are Many.”

The Honorable Alexis M. Herman, former secretary, U.S. Department of Labor, delivered a powerful, thoughtprovoking discussion on her life in the political arena and her relationships with Dr. Dorothy I. Height and Dr. Thelma T. Daley, national presidents of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.

Monica McKinney Lupton and Bernadette Adams served as chair and vice chair of the 102 Founders Day program.

Baltimore Alumnae Chapter presidents are standing, left, Aloha McCullough, Laura Phillips Byrd, Eleanor P. Matthews, Gwendolyn Lindsay, Beverly Boston. Seated are Rita Cooper, Lydia Mussenden, Dr. Ruth Pratt

Dr. Brenda Conley, Keayra Conley, Claudette Edgerton-Swain G. Madeline Campbell, Toba Baten-King, Sara D. Elias, Doris A. Smith. Seated are Berniece McDaniels, Beulah Wallace

Dr. Pamela Scott-Johnson, Dr. Earlene Roberts, Andrea Davis

Honoree Addison's family members are Lyndsey Wilson, Cheryl Addison, Eric Addison, Erica Addison

Vashti Turley Murphy's Legacy is represented by Quiana Murphy Gabriel, Rev. Dr. Marie Murphy Philips Braxton, baby Vashti-Gracia Murphy Saint Jean, Vashti Jasmine Murphy McKenzie Saint Jean

Wongus and John Berkley

EMBODI mentee Montaz Johnson, center, with Phyllis Davies-Stevenson and Valarie G. Smith, EMBODI chair and vice chair respectively

Mother-daughter Deborah Parker and Nicole M. Nichelson

Jakki Wilder, Hattie Penn, Deborah Wilder, Yvonne Washington. Seated are Cynthia Chapman Gibbs, Angela Ewell-Madison

Mother daughter duo Laura Phillips Byrd and Cimmon Byrd Burris

The Delta Chorale sang “Total Praise” to the guests’ pleasure

Mother-daughter Deltas are Bridgette Nash-Hodges and Doris Nash

Sharon Green, Lorna Byers, Tiera York Jones Photos by Dr. A. Lois De Laine

February 7, 2015 - February 13, 2015, The Afro-American

B3

ARTS & CULTURE

‘Supremacy’ Film Review

White Supremacists Take Black Family Hostage in Harrowing Hostage Thriller

By Kam Williams Special to the AFRO Garrett Tully (Joe Anderson) is about to be paroled after spending the last 15 years behind bars. Although he might have paid his debt to society, he has little hope of making a smooth adjustment back to civilian life, given his fervent hope that America is on the brink of a race war.

You see, Garrett has a lot invested in that belief, being a white supremacist with tattoos of swastikas, a Confederate flag, an Iron Cross and the word “HATE� adorning his face, arms, fingers and chest. This means his prospects of turning a new leaf aren’t very brilliant, especially since Doreen (Dawn Olivieri), the Aryan Brotherhood groupie picking him up from prison, is packing heat just in case they cross paths with a black person on the way home.

And wouldn’t you know it, they’re pulled over by an African-American police officer en route and, before Doreen has a chance to produce her license and registration, Tully calls the cop the “N-word� and blows him away with the gun hidden under the seat.

Next, rather than hightailing it to a neo-Nazi sanctuary, the unrepentant race baiters decide to break into a house in a black neighborhood where they proceed to use more racial slurs like “porch monkey� and “niglet� while holding everybody hostage.

Fortunately, the Walker family patriarch

(Danny Glover) makes sure cooler heads prevail, until help arrives. Too bad the police negotiator (Derek Luke) turns out to be African-American, too.

Directed by Deon Taylor (Chain Letter), Supremacy is a hostage thriller ostensibly inspired by actual events which transpired in Sonoma County, California on the night of March 29, 1995. At 11:30 that evening, Sheriff’s Deputy Frank Trejo was assassinated by a recently-paroled member of the Aryan Brotherhood and his gun moll, just before they forced their way into a nearby house and held the owners captive.

The resolution of this Hollywood version of the standoff relies on an empathetic Mr. Walker’s rising to the occasion. His philosophizing (“Prison does something to a man.�) miraculously manages to induce a couple of the most menacing and despicable screen characters in recent memory to have an 11th hour conversion.

A pretty preposterous turn of events, but who am I to argue with a tale presumably based on a true story?

Fair (1.5 stars) Unrated Running time: 106 minutes Distributor: Well Go Entertainment To see a trailer for Supremacy, visit: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=mj5pENEbZZI

‘Jupiter Ascending’ Film Review

Humble Housekeeper Turns Earth Heir Apparent in Futuristic Sci-Fi

By Kam Williams Special to the AFRO In 1999, Andy and Lana Wachowski wowed the world with a spectacular mindbender called The Matrix. But that was ages ago, another millennium, in fact, and their diehard fans have been patiently awaiting the launch of another groundbreaking, sci-fi franchise over the intervening years.

Those prayers might have finally been answered by Jupiter Ascending, a futuristic adventure featuring Mila Kunis in the title role of Jupiter Jones. The film is likely to serve as the first installment in a special f/x-driven series revolving around an apocalyptic showdown over the fate of humanity.

The picture’s point of departure is the city of Chicago, which is where we meet Jupiter, a humble housekeeper born without a country, a home, or a father. She hates her life, between cleaning other people’s toilets and a neverending string of tough luck, despite an astrological chart marked by Jupiter rising at 23 degrees ascendant which supposedly means she’s a woman of great destiny.

Truth be told, she’s not merely a maid, but has royal blood running through her veins, even if it is of the alien variety. As it turns out, Jupiter’s actually entitled to inherit Earth, and is informed of that good fortune by Caine Wise (Channing Tatum), a hunky emissary from a distant galaxy.

The epic unfolds like a classic origins tale by introducing a plethora of characters and filling in their back stories. For instance, we learn about a trio of aliens from the same

planet as Caine, Balem (Eddie Redmayne), Titus (Douglas Booth) and Kalique Abrasax (Tuppence Middleton), each of whom is vying for control of the family food business in the wake of the death of their mother.

That gruesome business involves the seeding of countless planets with life forms for the purpose of consumption. And they are just about ready to harvest humanity, since the Earth is now overflowing with people.

The only thing standing in the way is Jupiter, whose royal genetic signature has established her to be an Abrasax as well as the rightful heir to Earth. For that reason, there’s a price on her head.

And her and humanity’s hope for survival rests on the broad shoulders of her proverbial halfalbino/half-wolf knight in shining armor, Caine.

Once this creepy Soylent Green (1973) subplot is revealed, the pace of Jupiter Ascending ramps up substantially. For, at that juncture, the film sweeps up Jupiter for a visually-captivating journey which careens around the universe at breakneck speed, while barely pausing to take a breath until finally depositing a very relieved heroine back home where she’s happy to find herself surrounded by familiar faces.

An over-stimulating, intergalactic odyssey evocative of The Wizard of Oz. Very Good (3 stars) Rated PG-13 for violence, sci-fi action, partial nudity and some suggestive content Running time: 127 minutes Distributor: Warner Brothers Pictures

UNIVERSAL PICTURES AND FOCUS FEATURES PRESENT A MICHAELMUSIC DE LUCA PRODUCTION “FIFTYEXECUTIVE SHADES OF GREY� DAKOTA JOHNSON PRODUCERS MARCUS VISCIDI JEB BRODY JAMIE DORNAN JENNIFER EHLE AND MARCIA GAY HARDEN BY DANNY ELFMAN BASED ON SCREENPLAY PRODUCED

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B4

The Afro-American, February 7, 2015 - February 13, 2015

BLACK HISTORY MONTH AND VALENTINE’S DAY Hello my dear friends, how are you? I hope you are well and got your running shoes on, because this will be a very busy couple of weeks. I am going to set up a calendar of events for you and all you have to do is just follow my lead.

and Reaching (STAR), a faith-based community organization that provides

CALENDAR OF EVENTS:

• Feb. 6, 9 p.m.-11 a.m., Quality Plus will host a “Valentine’s Day Red & White Affair” at the Delta Center, 2501 Springhill Avenue in Baltimore. Tickets includes buffet dinner, free set-ups, champagne toast, BYOB, book signing by Rambling Rose with her new book on sale for only $25; dining music provided by Nirvine Jazz Duo and vendors of all kind, so bring some extra cash, check or credit card. For more information, call 443-762-7926.

• Feb. 13, Sister Together

Robert Lee Hardy performing in a one man show entitled “I Carry My Own Spotlight,” 6 p.m., Feb. 8, at the Eubie Blake Cultural Center, 847 N. Howard Street.

Food and beverages available for purchase. The show features comedy, movement, drama, music and poetry. Hardy morphs into numerous characters that address many taboo issues in our culture. For ticket information, called 410-225-3130.

services to the HIV/AIDS community will host a fundraiser “Affair of the Heart Masquerade Ball, 7 to 11 p.m., at the Clyburn Arboretum’s Vollmer Center, 4915 Greenspring Avenue.

Since its inception in 1991, STAR has assisted more than 40,000 people. For more information, call 410-9677503 • Feb. 6-14, Lexington Market will host a Black History Month 14th Annual Literacy Week featuring Black authors from all over the East Coast displaying their books for sale and doing book signings including myself. Performance of music, songs, narrated skits and dances based on African, Caribbean, jazz, blues, gospel, and Big Band Swing are included in the Black History Month daily for the month of February except for Sundays from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. and it is free.

• Feb. 14, 8 p.m.-2 a.m., Brian Hall, Baltimore’s wellknown promoter and CEO

of Nerisport Productions will host a “Valentines Extravaganza” at the Patapsco Arena, 3301 Annapolis Road in Baltimore. This event is BYOF, cash bar, free setups, many vendors, line dancing, Best Red Dress contest and comedian, Ms. Maybelle. There will also be an award ceremony for Black Ivory, The Ebony’s, First Impressions, Fabulous Friends, BADD, First Class, and Travis Winkey. Emcee is yours truly, Rambling Rose and my books will be on sale.

For ticket information, call 410-929-1360 or 609-3396767.

• Feb. 14, 12 noon-4 p.m.

Afro-American Historical & Genealogical Society (Agnes Kane Callum Chapter) will host its 7th Annual Genealogy Expo at the Northwood Pratt Library, 4420 Loch Raven Blvd. in Baltimore.

Go and learn about the many aspects of researching your family’s roots. There will be a beginning Genealogy Workshop for personal histories, personal research, genealogy displays, DVD presentations and question & answer session. For more information, call 410-3589875.

• Feb. 14, 7-11 p.m., Pamela Reaves will host her 2nd Annual “Power of Love Gala at the Grand Lodge of Maryland, 304 International

Carl Beasley, manager of the Poet’s Athletic Club in East Baltimore; Carlos Hutchins, night club promoter and Mattie Holman of Traci Lynn Fashion are hosting a “PreValentine’s Day Celebration Red & Black Affair,” Feb. 8, at the American Legion Post #22, 125 York Road in Towson.

It is cabaret style with BYOB & BYOF, free set-ups, live entertainment, free beer & Apple Martinis, DJ Sugar Chris, “Rambling Rose” book signing and much more. For more information, call 410-916-2605 or 443-963-5711.

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NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Supplies are limited. One pass per winner. Each pass admits two. Seating is not guaranteed and is on a first-come, first-served basis. Employees of all promotional partners and The Afro American are not eligible. All decisions are final.

IN THEATERS VALENTINE’S DAY www.FiftyShadesMovie.com

eeeee ONE NIGHT –DC Metro Theater Arts

Tracey Curbeam with the Charles Arnette Jazz Ensemble will perform for “Sisters Together and Reaching” (STAR), a faith-based community organization that provides services to the HIV/AIDS community.

The fundraiser called, “An Affair of the Heart Extravaganza Masquerade Ball” is 7 to 11 p.m., Feb. 13 at the Vollmer Center at Cylburn Arboretum, 4915 Greenspring Avenue. For more information, call 410967-7503.

EMAIL: CUSTOMERSERVICE@AFRO.COM TO REGISTER TO WIN TICKETS!

© 2014 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

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BALTIMORE & DC COMBO

AFRO-AMERICAN (WASHINGTON, DC) SAT 2/7 3 COL. (5.42) X 10 CS ALL.SVS.0207.AAWEMAIL #10

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in MIAMI...

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“Delves deeply into the fears, ambitions, foibles, and contradictions of an iconic group of men.”

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Circle, in Cockeysville.

There will be over 15 Power Couples honored at this event including Roger &

Patricia Johnson Harris. For ticket information, email Pam Reaves at pamrego1@ verizon.net.

Well, my dear friends, it is about that time, I am out of space. Remember, if you need me, call me at 410-833-9474 or email me at rosapryor@ aol.com. UNTIL THE NEXT TIME, I’M MUSICALLY YOURS.

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B2

The Afro-American, February 7, 2015 - February 7, 2015

February 7, 2015 - February 13, 2015, The Afro-American

B5

Woodson: A Man Beyond His Time Continued from B1

snow, when he was not needed to work the farm.

“To a large extent Woodson would be self-educated,” said Daryl Scott, executive director, ASALH. It was not until 1895 – when Woodson was 18 – that he would enter high school—the all-Black Douglass High School in Huntington—but he graduated two years later.

“There was something innate about him,” said Thornton about Woodson’s ability to succeed in school despite the challenges.

Scott agreed. “When you realize that only 2 percent of Americans were graduating from high school at the turn of the 19th century, then you know this is a guy who truly believes in education and is driven by something out of the ordinary.”

In the fall of 1897, Woodson enrolled at Berea College in Kentucky. It was close to his Huntington, W.Va., home, but more than that, it was one of the few higher education institutions at the time that promoted interracial education.

The experience would likely shape his views about race relations. He graduated in 1903.

Once again, Woodson seemed to be favored by time.

Though born during Reconstruction, he came at its tail An image of Harvard University’s Widener Library around the early 1900s. Carter G. Woodson graduated from the elite end when the Klu Klux Klan began to rise in power and school in 1912. influence, spreading hate and terror among the exslaves; he grew up at a of Negro of Life and History (which later time of growing post-war becomes the Association for the Study of resentment among Whites African American Life and History.) still smarting from the “He’s a high school teacher and what complications of dealing he presumes to do in establishing this with free labor; and he association is take on the whole academy,” entered adulthood when Scott said. “He was prepared to do conservative Democrats intellectual combat with the leaders of the finally wrested control from Western world and all the great universities the Radical Republicans, who had insisted for generations that Black passing laws and people have no history. And he wasn’t even a constitutional amendments university professor.” to disenfranchise African Americans through poll Next week, learn about the people who taxes and literacy tests, influenced Woodson’s life and work. and to restore the idea of White supremacy by the AFRO Archivist Ja-Zette Marshburn entrenchment of Jim Crow contributed to this story. segregation.

“Not long after Woodson leaves Berea, Kentucky passes a law that Blacks and Whites cannot be educated together,” Scott said. “If he (Woodson) had come a couple of years later, he would not have been able to matriculate there.”

While attending Berea, Woodson taught school in Winona, W.Va., and later served as principal of his high school alma mater.

In November 1903, he left for the Philippines to serve as a teacher and Woodson was encouraged by W.E.B. DuBois to attend supervisor. The experience Harvard. reinforced what would later form the basis of his life’s Thanks to the AFRO American for work in America.

“What he learned from that experience is that you have to teach people based on their more than 120 years of inspired own experiences. History is not simply Western; it’s not simply about elites; it’s about reporting and for showing all of us ordinary people and them knowing themselves,” Scott said. the power and the promise of equality.

After several more travels, Woodson returned home to continue his studies as a full-time student at the University of Chicago. His work at Berea was deemed unacceptable, but that didn’t stop him—he worked hard and earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees simultaneously. It was there, according to A Life in Black History: Carter G. Woodson by Jacqueline Goggin, that Woodson began to pursue his passion for documenting Black history. In February 1908, he wrote W.E.B. DuBois with statistics about the Black Church because DuBois at the time had amassed research and publications about African- American achievement for scholarly research. It is believed, however, that he may have been deterred by his professors and eventually chose French diplomatic policy towards Germany for his dissertation.

With his advanced degrees from the University of Chicago, Woodson enrolled at Harvard University, and in 1912, became the second African American, after W.E.B. DuBois, to obtain a doctoral degree from the Ivy League school.

The accomplishment was an astonishing one in that time, especially for someone of Woodson’s background, Scott said.

“To talk about a Ph.D. was so rare…. So Woodson was a freak of nature,” the ASALH director said.

But life at Harvard was not without its challenges, historians said. Woodson had believed the institution to be a place that was liberal and racially enlightened. Instead, he found instructors were propagating the same, widely-touted misinformation about Black intellect and Black—therefore American—history, and some tried to dissuade him from his goal of rewriting the historical record.

“Harvard University has ruined more Negro minds than bad whiskey,” Woodson is quoted as saying later on.

After graduation Woodson continued to teach in Washington, D.C.—he had funded his education through teaching jobs at schools such as Armstrong Manual Training High BGE.COM School and eventually M Street High School, a high school for the District’s Black elite. It was at the M Street High School that Woodson introduced Black history into the schools’ curriculum. And, it is while teaching there that he defied his Harvard critics and others, publishing his first tome on African-American history, The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861, in 1915. He also traveled to Chicago and established the Association for the Study

“He was prepared to do intellectual combat with the leaders of the Western world and all the great universities who had insisted for generations that Black people have no history.”

The

dream

is real.

“To talk about a Ph.D. was so rare….

So Woodson was a freak of nature.”

CLASSIFIED

Sma

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Payment Policy for legal notice advertisements. Effective immediately, The Afro American Newspapers will require prepayment for publication of all legal notices. Payment will be accepted in the form of checks, credit card or money order.

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TYPESET: Wed Jan 28 15:41:24 2015 LEGAL EST NOTICES CITY OF BALTIMORE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION PUBLIC NOTICE COMMUNITY MEETING Curtis and Pennington Avenue Street Conversion Study In an effort to educate the community about the upcoming project, a community meeting will be held.

Monday, February 9, 2015 6:00 PM to 7:30 PMCurtis Bay Recreation Center 1630 Filbert Street Curtis Bay, Maryland 21226 If you have any questions, comments or need special accommodations please contact: Ms. Grishae Blackette Southeast Transportation Liaison 443-984-4095 or at Grishae.blackette@baltimorecity.gov Receive regular updates via Facebook At Baltimore City, Department of Transportation Or on Twitter at Baltimore City, Department of Transportation WILLIAM JOHNSON, TYPESET: Wed Feb 04 15:56:10 EST 2015 DIRECTORDEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION CITY OF BALTIMORE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS OFFICE OF ENGINEERING & CONSTRUCTION NOTICE OF LETTING Sealed Bids or Proposals, in duplicate addressed to the Board of Estimates of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore and marked for Sanitary Contract No. 944-Rehabilitation and Improvements to Sanitary Sewers at Various Locations in Baltimore City will be received at the Office of the Comptroller, Room 204, City Hall, Baltimore, Maryland until 11:00 A.M. on Wednesday, March 25, 2015. Positively no bids will be received after 11:00 A.M. Bids will be publicly opened by the Board of Estimates in Room 215, City Hall at Noon.

The Contract Documents may be examined, without charge, at the Department of Public Works in Room 6 located on the first floor of the Abel Wolman Municipal Building, 200 N. Holliday Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21202 as of Friday, February 6, 2015 and copies may be purchased for a nonrefundable cost of $100.00.

Conditions and requirements of the Bid are found in the bid package.

All contractors bidding on this Contract must first be prequalified by the City of Baltimore Contractors Qualification Committee. Interested parties should call 410-396-6883 or contact the Committee at 3000 Druid Park Drive, Baltimore, Maryland 21215. If a bid is submitted by a joint venture (”JV”), then in that event, the document that established the JV shall be submitted with the bid for verification purposes. The Prequalification Category required for bidding on this project is B02552Sewer Construction Cost Qualification Range for this work shall be $10,000,000.01 to $15,000,000.00 A ”Pre-Bidding Information” session will be conducted at 3rd Floor Conference Room of the Office of Engineering & Construction, Abel Wolman Municipal Building on February 18, 2015 at 1:00 P.M. Principal Items of work for this project are: Repair, replacement, and rehabilitation of sanitary sewers, manholes, and appurtenances, as well as televising, cleaning, and bypass pumping at various locations, and other related work, including, but not limited to paving and surface restoration. The contractor must be able to mobilize multiple work crews with the necessary equipment to perform the work as designated by the Engineer. Generally, this is a requirements type contract, and work assignments are on an as needed basis. The Contractor must be able to proceed with work within forty-eight (48) hours or receipt of direction from the Engineer.

The MBE goal is 13% The WBE goal is 4% SANITARY CONTRACT NO. 944 APPROVED: Bernice H. Taylor P.E. Clerk, Board of Estimates APPROVED: Rudolph S. Chow, TYPESET: Wed Feb 04 15:59:36 EST 2015 Director of Public Works

NOTICE OF LETTING Sealed Bids or Proposals, in duplicate addressed to the Board of Estimates of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore and marked for Water Contract 1311R-AMI/R Urgent Need Pavement and Sidewalk Restoration, Various Locations will be received at the Office of the Comptroller, Room 204, City Hall, Baltimore, Maryland until 11:00 A.M. on Wednesday, March 4, 2015. Positively no bids will be received after 11:00 A.M. Bids will be publicly opened by the Board of Estimates in Room 215, City Hall at Noon.

The Contract Documents may be examined, without charge, at the Department of Public Works Room 6 located on the first floor of the Abel Wolman Municipal Building, 200 N. Holliday Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21202 as of Friday, February 6, 2015 and copies may be purchased for a nonrefundable cost of $50.00.

Conditions and requirements of the Bid are found in the bid package.

All contractors bidding on this Contract must first be prequalified by the City of Baltimore Contractors Qualification Committee. Interested parties should call 410-396-6883 or contact the Committee at 3000 Druid Park Drive, Baltimore, Maryland 21215. If a bid is submitted by a joint venture (”JV”), then in that event, the document that established the JV shall be submitted with the bid for verification purposes. The Prequalification Category required for bidding on this project is A02602Bituminous Concrete Paving Cost Qualification Range for this work shall be $4,000,000.01 to $5,000,000.00 A ”Pre-Bidding Information” session will be conducted at 3rd Floor Large Conference Room of the Bureau of Water & Wastewater, Abel Wolman Municipal Building on February 17, 2015 at 2:00 P.M. Principal Item of work for this project are: Locate ex. small meter vaults, adjust meter frame and cover of the existing meter vaults, replace/install meter settings and meter vaults, renew/replace existing water supply services, remove and replace top slab, replace/install shutoff valve on existing meter settings, install/replace small/large sectional vault, temporary pavement and sidewalk restoration, as required.

The MBE goal is 16% The WBE goal is 3% WATER CONTRACT 1311R

APPROVED: Rudolph S. Chow, P.E. Director of Public Works

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Mail in your ad on form below along with CHECK or MONEY ORDER to: WASHINGTON AFRO-AMERICAN CO. 1917 Benning Road, N.E. Washington, D.C. 20002-4723 Attn: Clsf. Adv. Dept.

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NAME: ________________________________________________ ADDRESS: _____________________________________________ PHONE NO.:____________________________________________ CLASSIFICATION: ______________________________________ (Room, Apt., House, etc.)

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BALTIMORE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPER Legal Advertising Rates Effective October 1, 2008 PROBATE DIVISION (Estates) 202-332-0080 PROBATE NOTICES a. Order Nisi $ 60 per insertion b. Small Estates (single publication $ 60 per insertion c. Notice to Creditors 1. Domestic $ 60 per insertion 2. Foreign $ 60 per insertion d. Escheated Estates $ 60 per insertion e. Standard Probates

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1-800 (AFRO) 892 For Proof of Publication, please call 1-800-237-6892, ext. 244 TYPESET: Wed Feb 04 15:59:59 2015 LEGALEST NOTICES

CITY OF BALTIMOREDE PARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS OFFICE OF ENGINEERING & CONSTRUCTION

APPROVED: Bernice H. Taylor Clerk, Board of Estimates

1 Col. Inch Up to 20 Words

CITY OF BALTIMORE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS OFFICE OF ENGINEERING & CONSTRUCTION NOTICE OF LETTING Sealed Bids or Proposals, in duplicate addressed to the Board of Estimates of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore and marked for Sanitary Contract No. 943-On-Call Cured In Place Sanitary Sewer Lining will be received at the Office of the Comptroller, Room 204, City Hall, Baltimore, Maryland until 11:00 A.M. on Wednesday, March 25, 2015. Positively no bids will be received after 11:00 A.M. Bids will be publicly opened by the Board of Estimates in Room 215, City Hall at Noon.

The Contract Documents may be examined, without charge, at the Department of Public Works in Room 6 located on the first floor of the Abel Wolman Municipal Building, 200 N. Holliday Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21202 as of Friday, February 6, 2015 and copies may be purchased for a nonrefundable cost of $100.00.

Conditions and requirements of the Bid are found in the bid package.

All contractors bidding on this Contract must first be prequalified by the City of Baltimore Contractors Qualification Committee. Interested parties should call 410-396-6883 or contact the Committee at 3000 Druid Park Drive, Baltimore, Maryland 21215. If a bid is submitted by a joint venture (”JV”), then in that event, the document that established the JV shall be submitted with the bid for verification purposes. The Prequalification Category required for bidding on this project is B02552Sewer Construction or G90099-Cured-in-Place Pipe Lining Cost Qualification Range for this work shall be $5,000,000.01 to $10,000,000.00 A ”Pre-Bidding Information” session will be conducted at 3rd Floor Conference Room of the Office of Engineering & Construction, Abel Wolman Municipal Building on February 18, 2015 at 11:30 A.M. Principal Items of work for this project are: Rehabilitation of existing sanitary sewer mainlines and lateral connections. This work generally involves cleaning, lining, pre and post TV inspection, and all incidentals to install the cured in place pipe (CIPP). Rehabilitation of existing sanitary sewer mainlines and lateral connections with chemical/structural grout. The work generally involves cleaning, application of grout, pre and post TV inspection, and incidentals. Additional work includes lining of existing sanitary sewer manholes.

The MBE goal is 8% The WBE goal is 2% SANITARY CONTRACT NO. 943 APPROVED: Bernice H. Taylor P.E. Clerk, Board of Estimates APPROVED: Rudolph S. Chow, Director of Public Works

To advertise in the AFRO Call

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February 7, 2015 - February 13, 2015, The Afro-American TYPESET: Wed Feb 04 16:04:28 2015 LEGALEST NOTICES

CAREER CORNER

CITY OF BALTIMORE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS OFFICE OF ENGINEERING & CONSTRUCTION NOTICE OF LETTING Sealed Bids or Proposals, in duplicate addressed to the Board of Estimates of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore and marked for Sanitary Contract No. 942-On-Call Assessment and Repairs of Small Diameter Sanitary Sewer Mains and Laterals will be received at the Office of the Comptroller, Room 204, City Hall, Baltimore, Maryland until 11:00 A.M. on Wednesday, March 25, 2015. Positively no bids will be received after 11:00 A.M. Bids will be publicly opened by the Board of Estimates in Room 215, City Hall at Noon.

The Contract Documents may be examined, without charge, at the Department of Public Works in Room 6 located on the first floor of the Abel Wolman Municipal Building, 200 N. Holliday Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21202 as of Friday, February 6, 2015 and copies may be purchased for a nonrefundable cost of $50.00.

Conditions and requirements of the Bid are found in the bid package.

All contractors bidding on this Contract must first be prequalified by the City of Baltimore Contractors Qualification Committee. Interested parties should call 410-396-6883 or contact the Committee at 3000 Druid Park Drive, Baltimore, Maryland 21215. If a bid is submitted by a joint venture (”JV”), then in that event, the document that established the JV shall be submitted with the bid for verification purposes. The Prequalification Category required for bidding on this project is B02552Sewer Construction Cost Qualification Range for this work shall be $10,000,000.01 to $15,000,000.00 A ”Pre-Bidding Information” session will be conducted at 3rd Floor Conference Room of the Office of Engineering & Construction, Abel Wolman Municipal Building on February 18, 2015 at 10:00 A.M. Principal Items of work for this project are: Cleaning and CCTV inspections of 6” through 24” diameter sanitary sewer mains and various lateral connections, open cut point repairs to 4” through 12” sanitary sewer mains and laterals, installation of cleanouts, installation of cured in place pipe (CIPP) for sanitary sewer laterals and miscellaneous work.

The MBE goal is 23% The WBE goal is 4% SANITARY CONTRACT NO. 942 APPROVED: Bernice H. Taylor P.E. Clerk, Board of Estimates

The Land Use and Transportation Committee of the Baltimore City Council will meet on Wednesday, March 11, 2015 at 1:00 p.m. in the City Council Chambers, 4th floor, City Hall, 100 N. Holliday Street to conduct a public hearing on City Council Bill No. 14-0444.

CC 14-0444 ORDINANCE -Zoning - Sign Regulations - ”Sponsor-a-Road” Signs For the purpose of exempting from the Zoning Code’s sign regulations certainsigns posted by or on behalf of the City to acknowledge business entities or otherpersons sponsoring a street maintenance - services program.

BY repealing and reordaining, with amendments Article- Zoning Section (s) 11-103 Baltimore City Revised Code (Edition 2000) NOTE: This bill is subject to amendment by the Baltimore City Council EDWARD REISINGER TYPESET: Wed Jan 28 15:58:52 EST 2015 Chairman City of Baltimore Department of Finance Bureau of Purchases

February 25, 2015 *PROVIDE TRANSPORTATION, CREMATION AND DISPOSAL OF ANIMAL CARCASSES B50003950

afro.com

THE ENTIRE SOLICITATION DOCUMENT CAN BE VIEWED AND DOWN LOADER BY VISITING THE CITY’S WEB SITE: TYPESET: Wed Feb 04 16:16:14 EST 2015 www.baltimorecitibuy.org

• Your History • Your Community • Your News

Sealed proposals addressed to the Board of Estimates of Baltimore will be received until, but not later than 11:00a.m. local time on the following date(s) for the stated requirements:

MBE/WBE/DBE Subcontractors and Suppliers Ulliman Schutte Construction, LLC, Rockville, MD is interested in receiving quotes from qualified MBE/WBE/DBE subcontractors and suppliers for the Salisbury WWTP BNR/ENR Upgrades bidding on March 12, 2015. Opportunities are available for Specifications Divisions 1 thru 17. Please Fax quotes to 301-545-0810. Contact telephone 301-545-0750.

Ulliman Schutte Construction, LLC 7615 Standish Place, Rockville, MD 20855

The General Assembly of Maryland is charged by the Maryland Constitution with appointing the State Treasurer by joint ballot of the Senate and House of Delegates. A committee, appointed pursuant to Section 5-101(b) of the State Government Article of the Maryland Annotated Code, will review resumes of all applicants, hold a public hearing, and make a recommendation to the members of the General Assembly. The State Treasurer is the guardian of State funds, responsible for receiving, depositing, investing and distributing State money. Among other duties, the Treasurer oversees the issuance of State debt, the investment of State funds, and the administration of the State Insurance Program. The State Treasurer also serves on a variety of fiscal planning committees and a number of other State boards, including the Board of Trustees of the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System and the Board of Public Works.

The Honorable Nancy K. Kopp, the current Treasurer of the State of Maryland, has applied for reappointment. Other applicants must submit their resumes or statements of work experience not later than February 13, 2015. Applicants must also present themselves at a public hearing to be held February 18, 2015 at 6 p.m. Resumes should be submitted to: Lynne B. Porter, Committee Staff Joint Committee to Select the State Treasurer Department of Legislative Services 90 State Circle Annapolis, Maryland 21401 410-946-5200 Baltimore/Annapolis 301-970-5200 Washington D.C. Metro Area 1-800-492-7122 for other areas in Maryland

EDUCATION -

BALTIMORE CITY COUNCIL PUBLIC HEARING ON BILL NO. 14-0444

The Baltimore City Mayor’s Office of Employment Development (MOED) is issuing a Request for Proposal (RFP) to solicit a subcontractor with the expertise and capacity to manage an Eastside YO! Baltimore Community Center, as part of the YO! Baltimore system. The subcontractor’s mission will be to serve eligible individuals out-of-school, unemployed youth 16 to 24 years of age-and help them create a comprehensive individualized opportunity plan to address barriers to academic and career success, and deliver a comprehensive set of support services to assist them in reaching their career potential. Proposals are due March 9, 2015. The RFP is posted on the MOED website on the ”About Us” page: Wed www.oedworks.com.

TYPESET: Feb 04 16:24:41 EST 2015

CANDIDATES FOR MARYLAND STATE TREASURER

TYPESET: Wed Feb 04 15:55:26 EST 2015

APPROVED Rudolph S. Chow, TYPESET: Wed Feb 04 16:04:50 EST 2015 Director of Public Works

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS (RFP)MAYOR’S OFFICE OF EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT EASTSIDE YOUTH OPPORTUNITY (YO) CENTER

TYPESET: Wed Feb 04 17:01:54 EST 2015

www.ullimanschutte.com Equal Opportunity Employer

To advertise in the AFRO Call

410-554-8200

DIRECTOR, WORKFORCE TRAINING & BUSINESS SERVICES CAREER AND CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION CARROLL COMMUNITY COLLEGE has a full-time, 12 month position as Director, Workforce Training & Business Services Career and Continuing Professional Education.

Additional information may be obtained at www.carrollcc.edu .

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B7

Reel-Ality TV Talk

Don’t Get Dramatic Over Drama

By Marquesa LaDawn NNPA Columnist I love asking folks: What reality TV shows do you watch?

Invariably, the response is: “I’ve seen The Real Housewives, but they are so dramatic.” Yes, they are dramatic and if they weren’t, they wouldn’t be on television.

And there are lessons in drama Marquesa LaDawn for those willing to look deeper.

The Real Housewives of Atlanta is supposedly the most dramatic of them all. On a recent episode, Claudia, one of the newest housewives, joined Kenya and Cynthia, on a short road trip to celebrate the opening of Peter’s new sports bar. Once they arrived, guess who was introduced as Peter’s business partner? Kordell, Porsha’s ex-husband. It gets even better when Claudia immediately connects with Kordell, leading to a possible future date. Now, if you watched this episode you may have thought Claudia and fellow housewives were wrong for even considering making this connection. If Claudia and Porsha were friends or desire to be friends, then yes, stay far away from the exes. But, most people who hate drama hate life and all of its craziness.

Stepping in to the Beverly Hills Housewives world…

Now, there was some real negative drama on the most recent episode. Everyone knows not to ever come between family.

Kyle and Kim, two of the RHOBH housewives, have a strained relationship, largely because Kim is an alcoholic. Well, Kim Richards shows up to a house party, impaired, which didn’t exactly relax her sister. Since Kim and Brandi have become BFF’s, Brandi decided to interfere and tried to pull Kim away from her sister. It got ugly and led to a bit of a fist fight. I agree this was an extremely dramatic situation, but it happens.

My sister is no alcoholic, but we have also struggled with our relationship, even to the point of her unfriending me on Facebook for a few months and not speaking for months. Now, that we are working our way back, I can tell you it’s a bad idea for anyone, even other family members, to get in the middle of this relationship. We’ve had our shouting matches but it never got to the level of physical fights. Still, watching this episode made me want to work hard on making this relationship better.

You see, there was a life lesson in there after all.

You know I can’t leave out Celebrity Apprentice even if I wanted to. Now, if you’ve ever watched this show, all cast members are automatically put into high stress situations and encouraged to fight for the right to “not be fired” by The Donald. During the board room scene in which Kate Gosselin was in the “hot seat,” Vivica Fox and Kenya Moore had to defend their positions. It got interesting, to say the least.

Vivica and Kenya exchanged barbs throughout. Still, amid the fireworks, they were expected to show why each was the stronger player. Without a doubt, Kate, as the project manager, did not have the skill set to win this challenge, period! Her defense seemed to be focused on her team mates not getting along, which she says caused the loss. Life Lesson: At the end of the day, do not let anyone interrupt your focus All good leaders know the first rule is to put people in the best place that serves the team. Kate broke that rule and it was nice to see Kenya defend her position by stating that it wasn’t personal, it was about business. Some folks watch the scene and thought poor Kate. I thought, bad leader –with or without drama. So the next time you are tempted to label someone “dramatic” remember that all drama isn’t necessarily bad. So bring it on!

Marquesa LaDawn is a professional business woman who escapes the pressures of living in New York City by retreating into the real world of reality TV.

B8

The Afro-American, February 7, 2015 - February 13, 2015

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